Features
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‘I’d have done the TT but my wife stopped me!’: Racer and TNT Sports’ Sylvain Guintoli admits Isle of Man parade lap was ‘best adrenaline rush’ ever
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Popular Sylvain Guintoli has revealed he’d have added the Isle of Man TT to his awesome back catalogue of race experiences had his wife not put the brakes on his hopes. The French rider, a former World Superbike, MotoGP and BSB star, still competes in endurance racing but lists a parade lap on the island…
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The radical TT motorcycle that almost changed everything
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Almond Tinkler was a racer, inventor and engineer whose extraordinary ‘power egg’ motorcycle was unlike anything else at the 1927 TT – but exhaustion, breakdowns and bad luck prevented it from ever making the start line. TINKLER Almond Tinkler was a keen motorcyclist from the time he could throw his leg across a machine. In…
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The Thorough: the short-lived motorcycle that offered unusually long test rides
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At the end of the 19th century George Featherstone was an ironmonger living in Bethnal Green but he had a son who was interested in the great strides that transportation was taking. It seems likely that it was John Featherstone who persuaded his father into producing a motorcycle in 1903. By then, John, now in…
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Ariel Red Hunter: History & Road Test
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From the 1930s through to the late 1950s, Ariel’s single-cylinder offering was one of Britain’s most enduring sporting singles.
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Hidden Gems: Yamaha YDS6
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Steve Cooper looks at a single year model that you can still pick up for not a lot of money. That the Japanese motorcycle industry plagiarised the work of others is well documented. In the modern business world such artifice creates what’s known as a second-to-market product and often such offerings have some of the…
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Vindec Special: The German Motorcycle That Nearly Won the First TT
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The Vindec Special was actually built in Germany by Köln-Lindenthaler Metallwerke AG of Cologne. However, it is an interesting footnote in British motorcycling history because its distribution in this country was handled by the South British Trading Company with the assistance and advice of William Huntingdon ‘Billy’ Wells. Wells had moved to London from his…
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The Walker Bullpup: The extraordinary one-off motorcycle that refused to disappear
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Although not technically a manufacturer – the Bullpup was very much a one-off – we include it here for its interesting story and because it really is ‘once seen, never forgotten’! The Bullpup was built by Farnborough engineer Victor George Walker who started the project in 1924 and finished it a couple of years later.…
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The Viscount: A rare production-built Norvin with Bonneville pedigree
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Marrying a Vincent V-twin engine and a Norton Featherbed frame was a well-known partnership by the end of the 1950s, but these ‘Norvins’ were generally the province of the amateur builder. Then motorcycle engineer Tom Somerton of Somerton Engineering decided that something a little less homebuilt would appeal to racers. One of the most successful…
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Looking back: Bultaco Owners Club gathers at the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum
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Looking back to April, the Bultaco Club UK brought more than 50 Bultaco motorcycles together at the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum, a fitting venue given the close association between Bultaco and Sammy Miller during the 1960s. Chris Mabey was there to capture the day. In glorious April sunshine, the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum was delighted…
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From shed-find moped to classic bikes: Pete Chatburn’s motorcycling story
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Pete Chatburn tells us about his start in motorcycling (and that’s how he titled his letter – we’re not being rude!) and wonders whether might be buried treasure on a local airfield. It all started for me in 1965 when I found my Granpa’s abandoned 1959 Raleigh RM1C moped in the shed behind his tailor’s…
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